Costs drive may see 50% of UK lawyers become temporary

A renewed influx of Commonwealth lawyers could mean that one in two solicitors in the UK will work on temporary contracts by 2005, according to legal recruiter TMP.QD Legal.The claim is based on US forecasts which suggest that in a drive to decrease costs US firms are drastically reducing the number of permanent lawyers they employ.TMP predicts that by the end of 2002, one in two US lawyers will be in temporary positions, and the same will occur in the UK by 2005.Managing director Tim Skipper said: 'The UK market is already beginning to adopt the US contracting model, and we fully expect this process to accelerate over the next 18 months, as a result of increasing pressure to drive down legal fees.'TMP is recruiting more staff to its temporary contracts division.

Its head, Sarah Lascelles, said it would target lawyers from New Zealand and Australia, who can easily switch to work in the UK, but cost less.

She added: 'We currently have a shortage of high-quality lawyers in the UK, so are keen to feed from the Southern Hemisphere's talent pool.'Jeremy Fleming